What I did in response to Amazon removing the ability to download kindle books.
TLDR: Amazon is tightening it grip on the book market by removing the ability to download books as a way to prevent consumers from removing DRM from books they bought. In response I got a new e-reader and started searching for DRM-Free books and bookstores/publishers that put consumers first.
Before February 26
Before Amazon removed the ability to remove on February 26th, 2025, I downloaded most of the books in my library. I tried removing the Drm from some of my books but failed to do so with a majority of my books. After removing the DRM from the books that I could I uploaded them to Libre to manage my various epub books.
I also bought a Kobo Libra Colour mainly just because this was the other Ereader I was thinking about getting but chose the kindle paperwhite at the time due to hearing that I might not be able to download books from my library on the Kobo ecosystem.
After receiving the Kobo LIbra Colour, I found out this was not the case and the actual user interace for the library borrows was actually way better than the Kindle paperwhite. As you could actually borrow and put holds on books from Libby/Overdrive within the actual device unlike the kindle where you would have to borrow books through the app and then send it to the kindle device.
The user interface of the Kobo felt a lot better. Amazon’s user interface felt like an advertisement to keep buying books on the Amazon ecosystem. It felt like I had more control about the books recommended to me and I didn’t have to pay a hidden cost ($15) to just see the cover of the book I was reading instead of another ad on a device I pad for.
One thing to be aware of there’s nothing prevent Kobo from implementing a similar policy to Amazon. As they still have DRM books and a closed ecosystem.
After February 26
While I was waiting for my Kobo to arrive I started looking into various websites to use to buy DRM free books from. As Kobo does also still have DRM on some books. So I began looking at various websites. These are what I found
| Website | DRM Status |
| Project Guttenberg | Free DRM-Free Books |
| Baen Books | Paid DRM-Free Books |
| StoryBundle | Paid DRM-Free Books |
| Weightless Books | Paid DRM-Free Books |
| Ebooks.com | Some DRM-Free Books (Check book by book) |
Libreture also has a list of of various DRM-Free Bookstores as well. Tor Publishing Books also request that all online stores they sell books in to sell DRM-Free Books
Why should I care about DRM-Free Books?
You should care because we don’t our ebooks and they can be removed from our libraries at a moments notice. Having these books downloaded locally is a way to protect the books you bought from tampering or removing your access.
If you would like to read more about how to protect your library or find more books for your library click below